Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe Details

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HOLY #%&@!

By Greg Miller

It started like any other videogame trailer. It was dark, there was some lightning, and slowly the words "This fall, worlds will collide and the fate of the universe shall be decided" began appearing on the screen. While the words popped up, Sub-Zero stomped Batman's head into the ground.

There is a God.

Remember those doodles in the margins of your seventh grade social studies notebook? They're coming to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this fall as Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, a title merging Kombat's fighters with the superheroes of DC Comics. The unexpected announcement came at Midway Gamers' Day in Las Vegas, and the trailer kept rolling with scenes pulled from every little boy's imagination -- Sub-Zero kneeing Batman in the back, the duo brawling through a brick wall and fighting while they plummeted to earth, and a still shot of the bad asses staring each other down.

The title will introduce a "cataclysmic force" that brings the two universes together and forces them to square off in a tale written by Jimmy Palmiotti (co-founder of Marvel Knights) and Justin Gray (writer of Jonah Hex and Crisis Aftermath: The Battle for Bludhaven), according to Midway. If players aren't up for the story, they can go at it in an arena mode, but if they are up for the yarn, gamers will pick a character from one of the universes and play through the adventure from one of two unique perspectives.

"Kombat forces friends to fight, worlds to collide, and unlikely alliances to be forged," Midway's press release reads. "In order to save all they know, the heroes and villains of Mortal Kombat must wage war against the combined might of the DC Universe."

While onstage, Ed Boon, creative director on the project, confirmed that Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Batman and Superman are in the game with more to follow. Boon also announced two new fighting mechanics in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Freefall Kombat will take advantage of the game's multi-tiered environments and have opponents brawl as they fall -- similar to the Bats/Sub-Zero teaser fight -- while Klose Kombat will pull the camera in tight on the two fighters so that bruises, torn clothing, jaws recoiling from fists and other gruesome details can be stressed.

Once we got Boon alone, we were able to get a little more out of him. Onstage, he mentioned that each character would have signature moves, and we decided to grill him it -- Can Batman die in this game? Can Superman pull off a fatality? Although he wouldn't get too specific, Boon said that he'd expect something closer to finishers than fatalities because of those out-of-character situations.

Looks like Bruce will live to see another sidekick.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is being developed at Midway Amusement Games in Chicago and is set for a fall release, but we're uber-nerds at IGN so look for updates as soon as we can get them.